DOVER CASTLE, KENT.
“Est ibi mons altus, strictum mare, litus opacum,
Hinc hostes citius Anglica regna petunt,
Sed castrum Doveræ, pendens a vertice montis,
Hostes rejiciens, litora tuta facit.”
—De Bello Hastingensi Carmen, i. 603.
THE tract of chalk which forms and gives character to the isle of Thanet and the south-eastern portion of the county of Kent, rises towards the sea to a line of cliffs upon which the promontories of the North and South Foreland and of Dover are the most conspicuous. The cliff line, however, is not continuous. It is broken at intervals by various valleys and gorges, down which the waters from the interior find their way to the sea, producing havens which in former days and for vessels of light burthen were much in request. Of these waters the chief is the Stour, which at no very remote period, near to the present Canterbury, fell into the head of a considerable estuary, the waters of which, guarded by the ancient fortresses Regulbium, Rutupiæ and Lemanis, maintained Thanet as an island, and gave to the trade of the period free access to the interior of the district. This estuary was not exempt from the general tendency to become silted up. Before the Norman Conquest the waters had receded from Canterbury to the parish thence named Stourmouth, and Thanet from an island had become a peninsula. The process of silting up has been since continued, and the mouth of the Stour carried many miles lower. The river, after a very winding course, falls into and in part forms what remains of the ancient English port of Sandwich, opposite to the anchorage known as the Small Downs.
About three miles to the west of the South Foreland, another and much smaller stream, fed from the lower chalk and greensand, flows down a deep valley, and, reaching the sea between two considerable heights, has given origin to the port, town, and castle of Dover, so called, without doubt, by derivation from a British name represented in the Roman times by Dubris. The town and port lie deep in the valley. Of the heights, a part of that to the west has been rendered famous by Shakespeare, and has long borne his name. That to the east is known as the Castle Hill, so called from the fortress by which, under some form or other, it has been crowned from a very remote period. A position so convenient and so capable of defence would, upon any shore, have attracted the notice of the very earliest inhabitants; for not only was the height strong and the port convenient, but these advantages were found at the point at which the island approached nearest to the Continent, and at which those who crossed the straits, whether as friends or foes, would first make the land, and, if not obstructed, would come ashore. The position, therefore, was of far more than local importance, and would be sure to receive the attention not only of the chiefs of the Cantii, but of the rulers, if such there were, of the whole of Britain. It is therefore probable that haven, town, and fortress date from very nearly the first settlement of the country.
Although the Western or Shakespeare’s Cliff is part of a larger range, the Castle Hill is better suited for defence. It is, in fact, an isolated knoll about 1,000 yards north and south, and 500 yards east and west, the summit being a steep and narrow ridge. Towards the south its boundary is the sea cliff, 320 feet high, and to the west the deep valley of the town. To the east and north are other valleys, less deep but by no means inconsiderable, and the sides of which are steep. Moreover, the whole hill is of chalk, that is to say, of a material easily scarped and capable of retaining any general outline to which it may be cut.
But though, on general grounds, a very remote antiquity may safely be attributed to both town and fortress, it is difficult to find any precise or special evidence on which to rest the claim. Here, as at Durovernum or Canterbury, the Roman form indicates a British origin, and, if the ancient name of the stream be indeed, as asserted, the Dour, may well be derived from it, and the Castle Hill is just the place upon which a British camp is likely to be found. The commerce of the Britons, known to have been carried on with activity through the Cornish ports and the Isle of Wight, has also been claimed for the route through Dover. The actual present traces of British occupation in this southern country are indeed very scanty, and confined to a few names of rivers and hills, a very few of towns or villages, and to occasional entrenchments upon high ground, and of an irregular outline. The great roads, whatever their remote origin, in their present form carry the stamp of Rome upon every mile of their course, and the oldest known works in masonry are due to the same people, while the general topography, all that relates to property and self-government, hundreds, lathes, rapes and tythings, parish and hamlet, grange and farm, and the crowd of bourns, dens, hams, hangers, hirsts, ings, tons, wolds and worths point with overwhelming force to the English settlers. Even the tenure in gavelkind, claimed as a British custom, and known in Wales by the expressive name of “Randyr” or “partible” land, is by most legal antiquaries regarded as Teutonic.
Although Cæsar does not mention Dover by name, there can be no doubt that his fleet lay before it in August, B.C. 55, the period of his first invasion of Britain. Dr. Guest has clearly demonstrated that the Portus Icius whence he sailed was a small and now silted-up haven between Cape Gris Nez, the Ician promontory, and Wissant, whence a ten hours’ course brought him in the morning abreast of Dover. Here he found the natives, in great numbers and armed, drawn up to oppose his landing. He therefore anchored in Dover Wick, the roadstead east of the town, to give time for his slower ships to arrive, and thence proceeded to Deal, where he probably landed with two legions, or from eight to ten thousand men. Dr. Guest has pointed out that the word Icius coincides closely with the Irish name for the English Channel, “Muir n’Icht,” “the Ician Sea,” “icht” being a form of “uch” or “ucha,” upper in height, which plays so important a part in the names of places in Wales and the north of Scotland. It was natural that the Channel should be named from its most remarkable feature, and to this day its name in Dutch is “De Hofden,” or “the heights.”
Cæsar stayed but three weeks in the country, and may not have visited Dover; but as, when he returned in the following year with a much larger force, he seems to have embarked and landed at the same points, he must have been familiar with the aspect of the port from the sea. As on this occasion he traversed Kent and crossed the Thames, he probably left no dangerous force behind him at Dover, which he does not mention, and which clearly was not then made a rallying point by the Britons. Had the heights been held in force, he would probably in the first instance have reduced them, or at any rate have mentioned the fact in his narrative. During the century that followed Cæsar’s appearance, Rome took no active part in British affairs, but it is probable that a considerable trade sprang up between the island and the Continent, and the Britons made great advances in commerce and civilisation. Towns were founded and coins struck. The next military invasion took place, A.D. 43, ninety-eight years after the first appearance of Cæsar, and under the reign of Claudian, and command of Aulus Plautius, who landed with four legions. The Cantii then held a tract nearly corresponding to the present county of Kent. Durovernum had been founded amidst its indigenous alders, and Camalodunum, beyond the Thames, was the chief city of the Trinobantes. Where Plautius landed is not precisely known. Probably at several points on the open beach between Rich borough and Laymen. Whether the Britons mustered north or south of the Thames is also unknown; but, when Claudian followed his lieutenant, the way lay open to that river, and he marched at once upon Camalodunum, where the Trinobantes were put to flight. Plautius probably subdued the country as far west as the Axe and the Tamar, and his progress may, it is thought, be traced by the remains of his rectangular camps opposed to those of larger area and irregular outline thrown up by the retiring Britons. As, in the year A.D. 40, Caligula had caused a lighthouse to be set up on the heights of Boulogne, it is not improbable that Plautius was the builder of the corresponding tower at Dover.
Ostorius Scapula is said to have occupied with a camp the Castle Hill. He, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola were busied mainly with the midland and northern parts of the island, and the southern province, Britannia Prima, seems to have been at peace. Roads were laid out, towns built, the metals were smelted, and agriculture prospered. Dubris (Dover), Durobrivis (Rochester), Rutupiæ (Richborough), Lemanis (Lymne), Regulbium (Reculver), and Anderida (Pevensey), came afterwards into notice as towns or havens. The Watling Street, which ran from Canterbury by Rochester northwards, seems to have been commenced at Dover. There were indeed roads from Canterbury to Lymne and to Richborough, but Dover would be the port reached by the production of the road in a straight line from Canterbury. In the reign of Valentinian, A.D. 364–7, a cohort of the Second Legion of 1,100 men was stationed at Dubris, where stamped tiles show them to have built a bath, and which is mentioned as a port in the Iter of Antoninus and as a town (civitas) by the geographer of Ravenna. In the time of Constantine, Dubris was one of the six ports south of Thanet, under the Count of the Saxon shore, the others being Rutupiæ, Regulbium, Lemanis, Anderida, and Adurnus (Portsmouth). It is, however, not included in the list of the twenty-eight towns existing when the Romans retired from Britain, of which Rutupiæ was one. Still, even if Dubris were one only of three heads of the Watling Street, its importance under the Roman sway was considerable.
To the Roman period is to be referred the burial-ground laid open near the edge of the cliff in 1797, and the bath discovered on the brook west of St. Mary’s Church. No mention is made of a Roman fortress, nor was it in accordance with the practice of that people to place a permanent camp, still less a military station, upon a height so inaccessible as the Castle Hill. The existing earthworks show no traces of Roman outline, nor, when they had possession of the whole district, was there any need to fortify the lighthouse. The lighthouse alone, of the works upon the hill, can with certainty be pronounced to be Roman, but this, of course, implies the existence and employment of the port. All that the topographer can affirm is that the earthworks do not now present, and, so far as description may be relied on, do not appear ever to have presented, anything of a Roman character.
Kent was probably the part of Britain first invaded by the Northmen, and certainly the first actually subdued and settled. It was the only independent state established and maintained by the followers of Hengist, the Jutes, a people who did not contribute largely to the conquest of Britain, neither did they occupy any considerable portion of the conquered country; but what they did retain became and still remains intensely Teutonic, and their early supremacy, during the conversion of the English to Christianity, is marked by the fact that their chief city became, as it has since remained, the ecclesiastical metropolis of the island. Dover was a considerable Jutish port, and before long was regarded as the key of England. Very probably the inner earthworks still to be seen, though too much altered to be recognisable, were the work of this people, and the collegiate church of St. Martin, founded in the town by Wihtræd, King of Kent (690–725), is said to have been removed by him from the Castle Hill. In the time of Alfred, Dover was placed in the bailiwick of Stouting, and the lathe of St. Augustine. Its history, however, properly so called, does not begin till the reign of the Confessor, whose charter to the Cinque Ports, which John is said to have inspected, was confirmed by many later kings.
In September, 1051, Eustace, Count of Boulogne, brother-in-law to King Edward, paid a visit to the English Court at Gloucester, and returning through Canterbury there rested his escort, and thence went to Dover on his way homeward. Before entering the town, he and his men put on their coats of mail, and attempted to take free quarters in the houses of the burghers. This led to a fight in which much blood was shed, and the Count finally, being expelled the town, returned to Gloucester with his complaint. The subsequent tale has often been told. Godwin, then Earl of Kent, took part with his injured countrymen, and withstood the strong Norman interest about the king, and was, in consequence, banished. Godwin proposed, says Malmesbury, “Ut magnates illius castelli blande in curia regis de seditione convenirentur.” Whether “castellum” can be taken for more than the fortified town is uncertain. It is not probable that Eustace would have ascended to the castle, since he sought quarters in the town. On the whole this passage can scarcely be taken to prove the existence at that time of a regular castle on the hill. Nevertheless, the existence of such a castle at that time is exceedingly probable, for in 1064–65 Harold, says William of Poitiers, swore to Duke William that, on the death of the Confessor, “se ... traditurum interim ipsius militum custodiæ castrum Doveram, studio atque sumptu suo communitum, item per diversa loca illius terræ alia castra.” Eadmer is more precise. In his account Duke William insists, “et insuper castellum Dofris cum puteo aquæ ad opus meum te facturum.” Malmesbury says, “Castellum Doroberniæ (Dubris) quod ad jus suum pertineret.” Here there can be no mistake as to what is meant. A well in the town could be of no special value, but a well on a chalk hill 290 feet above the water springs was an addition to the castle worthy of special notice. Such a well, moreover, was a very laborious work, and must have taken some time to complete. Harold’s oath is no doubt involved in a good deal of doubt and uncertainty, but the tale may at least be taken to show that there was, before the Norman conquest, a castle upon the hill, now crowned by the Norman keep, and that it had been strengthened by Harold. Malmesbury here, as in his account of the fray with Count Eustace, for Dover puts Canterbury, evidently in error.
Domesday Book opens with Dover. “Dovere tempore regis Edwardi,” &c. That king held two parts of half its rents, and Earl Godwin the other third, that is, the earl’s penny. The burgesses provided the king with twenty ships annually for fifteen days, in each twenty-one men. The king’s messengers also had certain valuable privileges, showing that the port lay in the usual route to the Continent. There was a mill at the entry to the port, much in the way of the shipping. The castle is not mentioned, but we read of the Gildhalla, or Guildhall, of the burgesses. The town, though thriving, had recently been burned, and the rent reduced in consequence.
The Normans landed, as their Teutonic ancestors had landed centuries before them, beneath the ancient walls of the Roman Anderida, which, under the name of Pevensey, had become an English, and was to become ere long a Norman fortress. Pevensey is a haven no longer, but within its circuit may still be seen huge fragments of Roman and Norman masonry, and the simpler, but, at least, equally durable mound of its English occupants, a grand and striking composition, and, to the instructed observer, eloquent of great events. William took possession of the ruins, and, on the following day, marched upon the battlefield, hastily fortifying with wood and earth the hill of Hastings in support of his position. After the battle Romney first felt the weight of the Conqueror’s hand, and he then turned to Dover. The castle was, says William of Poitiers, impregnable, and the town even then considerable; but the people, though assembled in vast numbers, had no leaders, and town and castle were at once surrendered, though in the transfer, either by design or accident, much of the town was burned. William paused here eight days, detained by sickness among his troops. He treated the people with great lenity, placed a Norman garrison in the castle, to the defences of which he added, and then proceeded towards the Thames, receiving the submission of Canterbury and Rochester on his way. Kent was placed under the command of Bishop Odo, who held Dover as its military centre. This continued to be its position, and in 1074, when the fierce Jutish blood broke out, and the men of Kent, headed by Eustace of Boulogne, rose against William, their first object was to gain Dover Castle, to which they laid siege. Its defences, whether English or Norman, were strong, but the attack was sharp. Bishop Odo and Hugh de Montfort, who had the castle in charge, were absent, but they exerted themselves in the county, and the castle was relieved. Towards the end of the reign the town is said to have been walled, and to have had ten gates. Its position, as the most important of the Cinque Ports, seems to have been established, to which its castle largely contributed. The five ports were Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich. Winchelsea and Rye were among the members. Their service was to provide fifty-seven ships annually, of which number Dover furnished twenty-one.
Important as the castle continued to be under the reigns of the Plantagenet and Tudor kings, its history does not possess any very particular interest. It was not the scene of any very remarkable event, and, though accounted the key of the kingdom, was not in any very intimate manner bound up with its history. It has always been held by the Crown and governed by a constable, usually a man of eminence, of which officials Lyon gives a list of 138. Three barons of the house of Fiennes held the office under the Conqueror, Rufus, and Henry I., and in their time seem to have been built the outer curtain and many of its towers. Walchelin Magminot, placed in office by Stephen, held the place against him in 1137, and in 1138 surrendered it to the queen, just before the battle of the Standard. Stephen died at Dover, probably in the castle, and Mr. Puckle has fought gallantly for the recent discovery of his remains. Henry II. is supposed to have built the keep and the wall of the inner ward in 1154, soon after his accession to the crown, and, if so, it was probably the actual work of one of the Barons Fiennes, who held the office of constable in that reign. Of these lords, the last, James Fiennes, was constable at the accession of Richard I., and in 1191 received, as a prisoner in the castle, Geoffrey, Henry II.’s natural son, on his way to take up the archbishopric of York. He was taken from the sanctuary of St. Martin’s church, and imprisoned by order of the Bishop of Ely, the chancellor. For this outrage Fiennes was suspended, and eventually the chancellor was excommunicated and banished. In 1198 the constable was one of the five officers appointed to inspect the treasures of the church of Canterbury. In the reign of John, the constable was Hubert de Burgh, to whom it fell to defend the castle against Prince Louis and the French invaders. Louis made great attempts to win over De Burgh to his party, but without success, and upon his final refusal he laid siege to the castle. Trebuchets and petraria, and much siege artillery were brought over from France, and a covered way was run along the slope outside the castle ditch on the north-west quarter. Wooden towers (Malvoisins) also were erected on the edge of the ditch to quell the fire from the walls, which were actually shaken by strokes of the ram. Also a small colony was established in temporary huts, so as to give the siege the aspect of a blockade. Hubert, however, was a true and loyal subject of England. He regarded his charge as held under his sovereign, whoever that sovereign might be, and his castle as the “clavis Angliæ et repagulum.” He returned attack for attack, stone for stone, until the death of John, by removing much of the cause of dissatisfaction, led to the retirement of the French from the country. The great spur-work in advance of the northern gateway, and which still, though much altered, remains, is probably the work of De Burgh, no doubt suggested to him by the direction of the French attack. Henry III. was here in state in 1255, on his way from Spain, and in 1259 the castle was in the hands of the barons, who refused to allow his brother Richard, King of the Romans, to enter the place until he had sworn to adopt their cause. Henry recovered the castle in 1261 from Hugh le Bigot, but was unable to hold it, and was refused admission when, with his brother and the Earl Mareschal, he presented himself before the gate in 1263. In the great struggle, Henry held the Tower of London, and the barons the castle of Dover. After Lewes, the Princes Edward and Henry were for a time held in durance in Dover. In 1265, when the prince had the upper hand, and Kenilworth had fallen, fourteen nobles of the royal party were imprisoned in the keep of Dover. Here they defended themselves, turning the tables upon their captors, who, attacked from without by Prince Edward, and thus placed between two fires, surrendered the castle. The Countess of Leicester, who was within it, was allowed to retire to France.
On his return from Palestine, after his father’s death, in the summer of 1274, Edward I. landed at Dover. He again visited the castle in 1278, 1296, and 1299. Dover was his usual port when he visited or returned from the Continent, and in his time the castle was maintained and strengthened, and some of its most considerable parts, such as the Constable’s Gate and St. John’s Postern, are of the conclusion of the reign of Henry or early in that of Edward, and most probably the latter.
Edward II. was here in the January following his father’s death, and here he embarked for Boulogne on the occasion of his marriage in 1308, and here he received the queen. Edward III. was not infrequently at Dover, but is more likely to have lodged in the Maison Dieu than in the castle. He probably drew troops from hence when he sailed from the port on his celebrated secret expedition to Calais in 1348. In the reign of Henry V. the Emperor Sigismond was received at the castle as a visitor, and from hence the king embarked his army for France in 1421, as did Henry VII. in 1491.
Henry VIII. suppressed the Maison Dieu, the celebrated foundation of Hubert de Burgh, within which very many kings and princes had been entertained, but the castle was an object of his special care, and was repaired and garrisoned. Henry also built the blockhouses of Sandown, Deal, Walmer, and Sandgate, and placed them under the charge of the Constable of Dover. Three bulwarks also were constructed under the cliff and upon the pier of the harbour. Later on the castle fell into neglect, and in the reign of Charles I., being garrisoned by a small force, and but little cared for, it was taken by surprise and held for the Parliament. In 1648 the Kentish royalists made a vigorous effort to recover it, but were repulsed by Algernon Sydney, then its governor.